New Anti-Paedophile Laws Here From March

New anti-paedophile laws won't come into effect in Devon until March next year.

Sarah's Law was campaigned for after eight year old Sarah Payne was murdered in Sussex in July 2000 after being snatched by a paedophile.

After a trial period the measures will be rolled out nationwide and will allow parents to ask police for background checks on anyone who has regular unsupervised access to children.

Pete Bradley from local children's charity Kidscape tells Heart its a good starting point: "let's just be cautious, we have to remember what we are trying to do here we are trying to safeguard children and I think a slow methodical approach will certainly benefit everyone"

Police will not allow full publication of names and addresses like they do in America - which has led to criticism from some campaign groups.

Pete thinks it is probably for the best: "what happened in the States is it's actually driven some of the paedophiles into hiding. This very slow rolled out approach is looking at problems along the way and overcoming them."

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